Sermon on The Missional Church - Given at The Church in Bethesda

          I remember once about 4 years ago, when Veronika and I were having lunch one day, and I was complaining, as I often did, about the Sunday morning service to her.  Particularly, I had some issues with the sermons.  I felt like I wasn’t getting anything from them.  And Veronika said to me, “Do you think a 30-minute sermon once per week is what you should rely upon for your spiritual growth?”  And I realized something very important that has stayed with me since – you are who you are, not who you would be if your church was different. 

Since then I’ve found myself making a distinction that has been very helpful – a distinction between seeing church as serving me, and seeing church as a place for people who serve others.  You know, every church has a purpose that it serves, just like every activity is guided by some purpose.  We can either explicitly choose our purpose and orient our activities around that purpose, or we can just drift with the world’s purposes, which usually have a lot to do with our own selfishness.  I think those of us who are married have found this to be true.  When we are intentional about the type of marriage we want to have, and that type of marriage is one of selfless love and service towards our spouse, and we are thus orienting our thoughts and activities around that type of marriage, we find ourselves in a thriving marriage.  When I go a couple weeks or months without really reflecting on my marriage but just going with the flow with this other person in the house, I am surprised by the amount of selfishness that has crept into my thoughts and feelings and actions.

This principle also applies to churches.  Churches seem to either serve the congregants, and the congregants judge the pastors on their sermons, as I did, on their programs, on how well they are beinig served, or churches serve a mission beyond the church walls, and that’s the idea behind the missional church.

I cofounded a software company 5 years ago.  Whenever someone starts a company, it’s something that affects a lot of people.  Veronika and I maxed out our credit cards and my parents gave us a loan.  And I don’t really think we knew what we were getting ourselves into.  My wife may have known, and didn't have the heart to tell me.  My partner and I quit our jobs with gusto one Friday and walked into a one-room office for the 2 of us in Tenleytown the following Monday.  Veronika went to IKEA that day and bought a beat-up floor sample bench for my desk and my partner borrowed a used wood desk that weighed several hundred pounds.  One of the things that made a big difference in my attitude to starting the business was the response of some people in my church when they heard what I was doing.  You see, I know of other church-going guys who have started a business and they seem to get similar responses from friends in their church.  Typically, the guys will gather around and congratulate the entrepreneur, saying things like, “Way to go” and “I always wanted to do that”, while the ladies gather around the wife of the entrepreneur.  Their comments are usually different.  “I guess you won’t be seeing much of him for awhile.”  “Do you think he knows what he’s getting into?”  Veronika and I were so blessed to have friends in our church who saw the importance of what was happening in our lives, and called us to count the cost and consider the consequences of our actions.  I remember one day having lunch with another couple in our church who asked us, “Are you ready to not see much of each other for two years?  Is your marriage ready for that”?  The company my partner and I had left did many illegal and unethical activities, and many friends from my church asked me how we were going to be different and not do those things.  This small community of friends knew that they were on a mission of good in the world, and called me during this time to be part of that mission.

To help me develop this point, I am going to refer us to two slides, each with a picture of church.  In the first picture, we see the traditional foundation of church as the weekend worship service.  In this model of church, the opportunities for service defined by the staff are almost entirely opportunities to serve the service on the weekend.  Now, let me stop here to say that I in no way mean to devalue the ministries on Sunday morning.  Rather, we need to reevaluate and revalue Sunday morning ministries as serving a greater mission.  Moving up the diagram, we see that the values and theology of such churches arise in response to the questions and challenges posed by the production of a weekend worship service.  For example, who of us has well-developed ideas on how Jesus would respond to the current reality that 75,000 DC residents have no health care?  Not me.  Now, who of us has well-developed ideas on contemporary vs traditional worship music on Sunday morning?  I sure do!  But, I won’t tell you what I think on that topic, because the point is that our theology is being defined by our purpose, which most of the time is the weekend worship service.  Within this model, mission consists of one of two activities out of all the other activities of the church: either supporting missionaries or special outreach events. 

Now, let’s look at what a church that chose and actually oriented its activities around a clearly-defined mission might look like.  The foundation of the church is mission, and this mission drives the focus, the values, the theology of the church.  Such a church is church during the week, and one of its activities is to gather for worship on the weekend.  Church members ask, “How can I contribute to the mission of this community?”  This is the church model that I feel we are called to.

The retreat from the world that we see in the traditional model for church is unfortunately rooted in much of our Christian theology.  For example, much of our theology tells us that God loves us and condemns the world, and that God thus promises to remove us from the world.  This misguided theology begs the question that we all must answer honestly, do we believe that God loves the world?  Do you really believe that God loves the world, and everything and everyone in it – our neighbors, our coworkers, our boss, our enemies, the oceans and atmosphere, the topsoil, the plankton, endangered species, everything and everyone?  If we do believe this, then it’s hard to believe that God also condemns the world and promises only to remove us from it.  On the other hand, many other branches of Christian theology may seem more loving of the world, but no more engaged in the world.  A quote from Mother Theresa is often quoted within this branch of theology, that we should “preach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words”.  Now, when I heard this the first time, I liked it.  When I reflected on it more, I realized that it was simply providing me a cop-out, because I only took from it a lesson in what not to do.  I didn’t struggle with what I should be doing that I wasn’t doing, like how to preach the Gospel without using words as Mother Theresa did in the slums of Calcutta.

Now, when you look at the slide above, the mission of a missional church is not described as saving the world, or ending poverty, or anything like that.  It’s described as being disciples of Jesus, and making disciples of Jesus.  I would submit that, while God desires right actions from us – he wants us to work to end poverty, to heal the sick, to comfort the afflicted – he wants us more fundamentally to be the type of people who act rightly.  We are who we are.  Through the example of Jesus, we have an opportunity to become this type of person.  People who know little of Christianity are generally asked to accept a lot of seemingly absurd things in order to understand anything about Christianity.  So many people have read one of the four  gospels in the Bible that tell the story of Jesus’ life, and think that Jesus was a great teacher, that he may have been the greatest teacher there ever was. In fact, they would like to live their life a lot like him. But it feels like they have to buy an awful lot more.

“What I would say is this: you don't have to buy anything you don't want. We must understand that belief is something that comes along as you experience. You don't have to fake anything. The way faith works is this: you put into practice what you believe. If you're attracted to Jesus, what do you believe about him that you can act on? Experience shows again and again that when you allow people to act on the little that they do believe, the rest will follow.”  These preceding words are the inspired words of philosopher Dallas Willard, who with Richard Foster has taught us so much about a life of learning from Jesus.  When we are attracted to Jesus, and then act on what we believe about him, we are becoming disciples of Jesus, just as we may become disciples of other mentors in our lives.  Christianity is about a lot more than not sinning anymore for when we are attracted to Jesus after reading about his life and teachings, particularly his Sermon on the Mount, and we act on that and seek to become more like Him by doing what he said to do, we become the type of people who no longer want to sin.  Rather, we want to do the things that Jesus would do were he in our shoes today, in our workplace, married to our spouse or dating our girlfriend or boyfriend, befriending our friends and living in our world.

            This mission to be more like Christ is a mission that has been reaffirmed throughout the history of the church.  It is a mission of action, not a mission of retreat from the world.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains both the priority of action over words, as well as the need not just to do the right thing, but to become a person disposed to do the right thing.  “’No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.  Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.  People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.  For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.  Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord” and do not do what I say?”  (Luke 6:43-46)  The specific direction and guidance we find in our dealings with others in the world when we begin this journey of growth into Christ is a direct result of this encounter with Christ we then have throughout our day.  As we grow into Christlikeness, we are confronted with the awesome truth that you are who you are, not who you would be if your church was different.  You are who you are because Jesus has invited each of us to do what God would do were he in our shoes every minute of the day.  So you are who you are, not who you would be if the system was different.  You are who you are in your workplace, not who you would be if your boss was different.  You are the husband you are, the wife that you are, not who your would be if your spouse was different.  Christ is there for each of us to learn from and to grow into His likeness as the heroes of our faith have done throughout history.

            To become the type of person who cares for the world, we look for ways to transform ourselves, to transform our natural inclinations towards selfishness.  When I am riding the subway or a bus here in D.C., I sometimes play a game with myself.  I look at the people sitting across from me, and I think, What do I instinctively think of these people?  This can be a very enlightening and informative game, you can learn a lot about yourself.  Generally, I am sad to say, my instinct is to be annoyed with people, to almost dehumanize them, to reduce them to a generalization – fat, loud, lazy, etc.  Then I pick out individual people in my mind, one-by-one, and ask myself questions: where might they be coming from or going to, what might have been their biggest struggle today, who may have insulted them, how might their family be doing, who might they be loving and serving?  As I ask myself these questions, I find that I’ve started to pray for them.  To pray for the best for them.  I find that I humanize them and see them much as Jesus saw anyone that he didn’t know according to the Gospels.  Friends, this type of prayer is a powerful way to transform yourselves into the type of person we see that Jesus was, into the type of person disposed to do good things in the world.  There are other such ways, they are often called disciplines, through which followers of Jesus have transformed their spirit – in addition to prayer, there is fasting, there is simplicity, there is service, there is meditation, and many other ways. 

Now, let me close by sharing with you one of the most powerful ways to do this, to transform you spirit, your dispositions to do right or to do wrong by our fellow man.  Have you ever noticed that when you are around certain people, you are a better person?  I think all of us have experienced this.  We find that there are certain people for whom being in their company seems to bring out the highest in us.  And what’s more, we like it.  We like being around these people.  They don’t make us better because they scold us or lecture to us or condemn us.  We are better people when we are around them and we like being around them at the same time.  A very similar observation about friendship is made when Jesus says to his disciples just before his crucifixion, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay his life down for his friends.  You are my friends, if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I have learned from my father I have made known to you." (John 15:13-15).  The relationship of the disciples with Jesus made them better people, and it was only at this point of the relationship with his disciples that Jesus called them friends, a result of their sharing this common mission in the world.   

            People who play this role in our lives are a sort of mini-oasis for us.  Their company is a sort of watering-hole where we can go to get a cool drink of water and encouragement in our mission to be the type of people we seek to become, people transformed to do good in the world.  And that is what any community and any congregation can grow to be for each other – an oasis and watering hole for each other who desire and pursue the best for each other.  In a community like this we can fine true friendship that helps nurture and sustain our life of discipleship in the world.  I believe that’s what Jesus calls us to.  It isn’t a program.  It isn’t a church growth technique.  It cuts against the grain of these types of things.  It’s instead a vision for church that is based on the mission of being and making disciples of Jesus, where disciples can come to find true friendship with other disciples who give us renewal, a cool drink of water, and then send us missionally out into our world to do what Jesus would do in our lives throughout the week. 

Comments

[Raquel Jarabek]

Ken, great sermon! I think this sermon describes what you have learned so far in life. I totally agree with what you have written. Thanks for writing it so well. It was a joy to read. --Raquel

[Nicolas Nelson]

Excellent sketch of a missional church! May many more like this be planted throughout this world God loves so much.

Keep writing. It is strong, savory food for mind and soul.

[Paul]

Hey, Ken ... so this is the sermon I missed! Sorry I couldn't make it, though at least I've finally had a chance to read it. I quite agree with your main point; it's certainly a very different sort of homily than I hear in my church!